Category Archives: the cabin

from earlier 2017: ah, that 60s-paneling enclosed bathroom – so cozy when you’re doing your thing, smells great when the shower hits it, probably harbors zero germs – butttt, we decided to tear it out and tile the room. plus the floor was soggy and the toilet would tilt when you sat on it. i appreciate that the grooves align perfectly, and that everything is brown, brown, brown, (it is a bathroom after all). as we know from the previous demo, a wonderful pine ceiling is hidden above the paneling. so down it went. see? much nicer already, with the ceiling gone. adds good height to the room. Below, we next tackled the floor. A couple layers of linoleum and then the subfloor. The floor framing of this cabin is 4×6 @ 48″ o.c., and the toilet needed some additional new framing below it. we brought in a contractor friend for this ‘heavy lifting’ work.

we slid the new tub – Kohler Bellwether – into place on a piece of carpet, much better than lifting! the cast iron tub weighed 300lbs! and did a good job of weighing down our truck in the snow. we chose this over an acrylic tub because they retain heat better and i read that acrylic can crack – although i’ve never heard of this from any clients. meanwhile, we did find time to break away and hit the slopes at nearby Bear Valley in the continuous epic snowfall: it was the most snow in many years and hoping for more this winter! now that the tub was in and hardie backerboard installed, time to start prepping for tile install. *disclaimer, this is an informal blog, NOT an instructional story – do not try any of this at home!! we’re not experts! DIY DIY keep reading below for tile fun 🙂 Continue reading →

I blame instagram for my lethargy with this blog…but here’s why I continue: people find it and they call me. no one has ever called the office and said “i found your mcelroyarch.com website”…but very often people say they found me via the blog. the following content is from December – January (!!) our first snowfall at the cabin the first weekend in december…it certainly was the tip of the iceberg. something that bugged us a bit was walking in the front door there was a view straight into the bathroom, and a vast open space for … doing a pirouette? maybe, but we decided to add a closet that would do triple-duty: create a defined entrance, block the bathroom door, and provide storage since we removed the only 2 closets in the house 🙂 there’s Scott pulling up the carpet to reveal this:the stickiest-ever vinyl floor tiles, beneath which was the original layer of most likely asbestos 8×8 tile in appropriate forest green. ambitiously we thought we could scrape it up with ease: not so fast, because it was stuck beyond fast. I asked around and everyone said ‘just go right over it’, so we did. the time-stamp on these is about 8pm. fun! tbh this was the first wall either of us had ever built, in tilt-up fashion. the Jim Beam helped us celebrate afterward. why is the 2-stud header over the door stacked horizontally? I saw it that way in a frame-construction book. even dad in NY questioned it. but it only has to hold up bi-fold doors, who cares? don’t try this at home, it’s not an instruction guide! even after framing it was super wobbly, with no shear to steady it. a view from within the ‘hallway’ looking out toward the great room, new closet on the right. Continue reading →

long overdue for a post on our progress at the cabin: this Fall we did a good amount of demolition…I always say demo is the easy part: anyone can tear down a wall! it’s fun, a good way to get in some exercise and get out some stress. reminder: the main living spaces of the cabin have beautiful open wood ceilings. but as seen above, the two bedrooms had dropped ceilings, making the rooms feel cramped. I was convinced that there was the same wood above, in an enclosed attic….there was no access so we just had to bust through. and… what was up there? we found .. knotty pine tongue & groove, woo-hoo!! exactly what we hoped to find. we continued to pull down the tiles. in one corner, we found what looked like an old hornet nest. I knocked it over, and heard the sound of dripping onto the floor…what the hell liquid could be dripping? it turned out to be….ANTS by the hundreds:Scott ran out to buy Raid at the local market while i sprayed them with clorox or whatever cleaner we had. not fun. but we bagged them up and pushed on. this is our first peek up into the ‘attic’ over the bedrooms. wood ceiling untouched since 1963. the gable exterior wall had no insulation in it, not surprised to find.we also removed the small funky closets that were built into the bedrooms. our thought is we’ll never really need bedroom storage in a cabin, and they took up valuable floor space in the cozy rooms. Continue reading →

at long last we have a place of our own for a to-the-studs project! we could not be more thrilled. this woodsy little confection was built in 1963, at the tail-end of the mid-century era, in the California Sierra foothills. after a 3-month search through the pine forest with our realtor, we settled on the one: it was the right size (800 sq ft) not oversized like some ski-houses tend to be; in a good location we’ve visited with friends – it has access to a lake; and most importantly because it hadn’t really been touched much since the 60s and needs work – nothing major, but work that we’re anxious to do. a real vintage fixer-upper. below are photos of the other sides. it was affectionately referred to as ‘cigarette house’ by our realtor because it was beyond saturated with the smell. but that only ‘fueled’ our interest more – we knew we could do a job on it. I like the board-and-batten siding but not the lemon color. so un-woodsy! it’s nestled into a gentle hill with a deck in front and a cute guest cottage / toolshed out back – perfect for our unwanted guests lol! I assume it was used for sleeping because it’s insulated, carpeted and has lighting. Inside the house, it’s wood-on-wood-on-wood. another big selling point was the vaulted, knotty pine ceiling….which we love and think really makes the cabin. there are three truss-beams running through the living area. my engineer colleague took one look and said they’re not structural. but we’re keeping them, of course.the kitchen is quaint, and came with no refrigerator. that’s OK – we have coolers, for now. seems like a mircrowave was taken too – but we don’t care – less things to throw out because it would probably not been one we liked the look of. the cabinets are not original, maybe one of the only things updated in the house, but they’re OK for now. we have plans. in the bedrooms, the vaulted ceiling disappears….WTF. why are these ceilings flat / dropped? the first time I saw this, I was certain that the vaulted pine must continue above, and this is only a cosmetic lower ceiling. we also did not love the built-in closets that took up floor space in the cozy bedrooms. how about those faux-wood accordion doors? oh my vintage! there’s no way they’d make the cut. The Bathroom…pretty basic…you can’t tell but the toilet is on an angle – we’ll call it the V8 toilet. I’m glad there’s a wall-hung sink, I often prefer them over vanity cabinets that can make a small space feel cluttered (like that shelf!). even the toilet seat was wood-grain. the entire bathroom was paneled, ceiling and all. I actually like this curved-corner medicine cabinet and think with a little spray-paint it can stay. that outlet is not GFI = good thing I don’t use a blowdryer 🙂 some fun light fixtures. old-west scalloped realness above, and the lower one is the same as was in my childhood bedroom – and I’m sure many bedrooms across the USA.. the original wood wall paneling: to keep or not to keep?? it’s ‘real’ wood, as in very thin sheets of plywood. not plastic printed woodgrain that came along later. this is genuine wood..and wood makes the CABIN. we are at once charmed by it, and yet could also see painting it white to brighten the place up. for now we’ll keep it, other things to do first. we’re also unsure if all exterior walls are insulated. the ‘Woodsman’ fireplace is so damn awesome. we’ve already built many fires in it. we like to think we are becoming woodsmen…ha. vintage moment: maybe we should keep the paneling in the bathroom? she doesn’t seem to mind it.and as for this short, but obtrusive wall: I suspect there is a structural post within it, supporting the ridge beam. but it’s in a bad spot. we think this is where a refrigerator once was (on the kitchen side) but we don’t plan to put it back there. this wall irks us but I have a solution.

your homework is to think about the paneling! should it stay or should it go?! more to come!